Summary:Drilling a borehole and installing a handpump is a common way to improve access to water for rural (and urban) people in many parts of the world. However, the failure of these water points is shockingly high, a third in many African and Asian countries and often much higher.

New communications technology is opening up the possibilities for 'Smart Handpumps' - handpumps that actively record how and when they are used and transmits that data to an organisation who can use that information to (a) mobilise targeted maintenance and repairs; (b) identity priority areas for future improvements and investments; (c) to understand the user needs better, and main other reasons that shift rural water supply away from 'fire-and-forget' projects and towards water services that last and that reach everyone.

Summary:29th November – 2nd December, 2016. The RWSN Forum is the foremost global event on rural water services and takes place every 5 years. We anticipate 650 participants from all over the world at the 2016 event which is in English and French.

Globally, use of improved drinking water services in rural areas rose from 62% to 84% from 1990 to 2015. Investment in rural water works, but there is still need to:

1) Achieving universal access – water for everyone
2) Ensure that services improve over time
3) Bring about sustainable services
4) Link water supply with water resources management

The 7th RWSN Forum will explore how we are going to reach Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in rural areas and small towns? What has worked well in the past? What needs to be done differently in the future? Come and share your experiences of success and failure and learn from others.

Summary:Since 2005, RWSN’s work on Cost-effective boreholes has been supported by WSP-AF, UNICEF, SDC and USAID. Coordination activities have comprised up to two-person months per year by Kerstin Danert (Skat). Additional financial support has been provided for specific case studies, support to the drillers associations, the development of guidelines (published as field notes) and tools and the development of the Code of Practice.

Now, in 2015, we are pushing harder than ever for better, more cost-effectuve boreholes and more professional drillers. We are doing this through work to:

Summary:RAIN Foundation and RWSN are collaborating on increasing understanding and uptake of rainwater harvesting, and connecting with people who are looking for help in implementing these systems. This series of documents showcases some of the innovative approaches being undertaken around the world.

Summary:Ensuring that rural dwellers around the world do not have to walk for hours to collect sufficient and safe drinking water is a huge challenge. In 2010, RWSN published "Myths of the Rural Water Supply Sector" which raises issues for those of us who are involved in trying to improve rural water supplies, whether as donor, Government or NGO; program manager or practitioner. It takes a hard look at our limited achievements, points to areas where our approaches need to be radically improved and sets some challenges.

Summary:ENG: RWSN is delighted to announce the first of the 2017 series of webinars (on-line seminars) on rural water supply, running every Tuesday from April 18th, 2017 until June 13th, 2017. This series includes 9 weekly sessions on topics, which were presented and debated during the 2016 RWSN Forum in Abidjan, and related to the RWSN themes. For instance, we will find out about local government superheroes and their role in realising the human right to water and sanitation, but also hear about emerging cross-cutting issues such as improving WASH services in protracted crises. Each session will be bilingual, with one webinar in English as well as another language (French or Spanish) as we are trying to cater for a wide and varied audience. The format includes 1-2 presentations, comments from discussants, and a Question & Answer session where all participants are invited to ask questions or make comments. For more details on the first 2017 series, please refer to the table below.
The webinars in English start at 2.30 pm Paris time/ 1.30 pm London time/ 8.30 am Washington DC time. You can check your local time here. To register for one or all of the webinars, and receive an invitation please click on the following link: http://bit.ly/2movPGM

Summary:The idea is simple. There is hardly a place in the world where it never rains. Rainwater belongs to everyone. And the methods to collect, store, use and reuse rainwater (to ‘harvest’ rainwater) are easy to apply. So why not spread those methods around the world?

RAIN Foundation and RWSN are collaborating on increasing understanding and uptake of rainwater harvesting, and connecting with people who are looking for help in implementing these systems.

This series of webinars show cases some of the innovative approaches being undertaken around the world.

Summary:REACH is a seven-year, global programme of research (2015-2022) led by Oxford University and funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) that aims to improve water security for over 5 million poor people by 2022.

As a Research into Action partner, the Rural Water Supply Network will support the design and implementation of the programme’s communications strategy, supporting the uptake of the research findings and ensuring that they translate into positive policy and practice outcomes.

Summary:RWSN is your network and we really want to hear from you. Over the last years, the network has experienced explosive growth in both its membership and its activities. We are currently conducting an evaluation to inform RWSN’s strategy for 2018-2020 and would like to hear your thoughts.

What have you got out of RWSN? How can we make it easier for you to use the network to benefit your work in rural water supply?

We will share the RWSN online member survey in early July, and we also want to provide the space for other forms of feedback and suggestions. Please feel free to send us your thoughts as a comment to this blog in English, French or Spanish, or by email (ruralwater[at]skat.ch). We will monitor both of these platforms and will take your feedback into account. Your opinion really matters!

Summary:This mini-series will address issues around financing rural water supply services, but also on how to make RWSN work better for you as part of a new strategy for the network. Each session is bilingual, with one webinar in English as well as another language (French or Spanish):

English:
•Thursday 9th November, 2017: Making RWSN work for rural water professionals: results from the RWSN evaluation and new strategy 2018-2023
•Tuesday, 14th November, 2017: “Grown up” finance for rural water?
•Thursday, 16th November, 2017: A Dollar per year keeps rural water services here? The costs of direct support.

Summary:Over the recent decades, in many countries, significant progress has been achieved in improving access to rural water supplies. However, it will be almost impossible to reach universal access by using community supply models alone, as this approach will simply be too costly. For achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring universal access to water for all, new approaches and a shift in mindset and policies are needed.

Supported Self-supply is a very cost effective service delivery approach which is complementary to communal supplies, is aligned with Human Rights principles, supports equity and inclusiveness and achieving several SDGs.

Summary:Failure by governments and development partners to ensure sustained access to basic water supplies in rural areas is, to a large extent, the result of inadequate investment to deliver infrastructure where needed. It is also the result of a failure to ensure that infrastructure, once in place, continues to effectively provide the expected services over time.
Impressive gains from the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era remain fragile and at risk, with various empirical studies indicating that 30 percent to 40 percent of rural water infrastructure is not functioning or functions below expected service levels (RWSN 2010).

Summary:Borehole drilling is relatively underdeveloped in Sierra Leone compared to other countries in West Africa despite its potential. An eight-month project “Tapping Treasure: Cost-effective boreholes in Sierra Leone” supports: (i) government and NGOs to develop their capacity to manage borehole drilling and (ii) drillers to manage risks. The project will contribute to increasing the demand for boreholes, reducing the cost of drilling and improving construction quality.

Project start: 2013 • Project finished: 2019
Collaborators: Skat Foundation, Richard Carter & Associates + research teams from across Africa and Europe.
Funder: UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and in principle the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Summary:A social and natural science approach to enabling sustainable use of groundwater for the benefit of the poor.

Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor (UPGro), is a new seven-year international research programme which is jointly funded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It focuses on improving the evidence base around groundwater availability and management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to enable developing countries and partners in SSA to use groundwater in a sustainable way in order to benefit the poor.

Summary:This EU-funded project is developing and testing a Technology Assessment Framework (TAF) to allow governments, donors and NGOs to evaluate the usefulness of new technologies for a specific national, regional or local context, and support promising technologies from piloting to mainstream use.

Over 2.5 billion have no access to improved sanitation and 780 million people lack access to improved sources of drinking water, according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (2012). The numbers are staggering. The suffering is real. The challenge to overcome is immense. Success can only come through a combination of action and communication. Both are critical.
We have a vision where Water, Sanitation and Hy-giene (WASH) professionals are regularly sharing and learning – at all levels from districts to global networks. As a sector, we also need to reach out and communicate with wide range of audiences: politicians, policymakers, companies, water users, and the public in all countries.
We often have the content: experiences, data, pro-jects, methodologies and stories of success and failure. What we are often not great at is explaining ourselves to others in a way that leads to positive action.
We want to change that.